If you hadn’t already found out, new LT Orlando Brown Jr has chosen his jersey number with the Kansas City Chiefs. It just so happens to be a unique jersey number for an offensive lineman too.
Brown Jr. is set to wear the No. 57 jersey in Kansas City. He wore the No. 78 jersey with Baltimore Ravens and the Oklahoma Sooners, but couldn’t wear that number with the Chiefs as it’s one of the team’s 10 retired jersey numbers. That jersey choice was inspired by his father who wore that number in the NFL.
So why did he go with the No. 57 jersey? Well, he’s doing so to honor two people in his life. The first is his late father, Orlando Brown Sr., who played with the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. The second is his friend and mentor Jammal Brown, who went to his alma mater at the University of Oklahoma and played for seven seasons in the NFL.
“I feel like 57 gave me the opportunity to represent two men that had an incredible impact on my life,” Brown Jr. told reporters on Thursday. “That’d be Jammal Brown (55) and my dad wearing 77 and 78. I just felt like it was an opportunity to — I would have got 75, but Mike (Remmers) has 75. So I was like, ‘You know, 57 is available.” I just thought it was a great number. I definitely thought it was unique, but it definitely gives me the opportunity to represent those men.”
It seems fitting that two of the men who helped lead Brown Jr. to Kansas City would inspire his jersey choice with his new team.
As noted by KC Sports Network’s Matt Derrick, Brown Jr. became the second Chiefs offensive lineman to wear a jersey number in the 50s since 2000. The other player being Chiefs’ Hall of Fame guard Brian Waters, who wore No. 54. Chiefs rookie C Creed Humphrey, who chose No. 52, will become the third player at the position to wear a jersey number in the 50s.
[listicle id=93384]